WWALS Watershed Coalition advocates for conservation and stewardship of the Withlacoochee, Willacoochee, Alapaha, Little, and Suwannee River watersheds in south Georgia and north Florida through education, awareness, environmental monitoring, and citizen activities.

Tag Archives: Marion County

Apparently some people in Albany, GA and Dunnellon, FL were surprised when Sabal Trail a week ago sent FERC
“Notice of Commencement of Construction – Phase II Sabal Trail Project Facilities”,
which means for the compressor stations in those two locations.
But that notice was merely that “bona fide construction activities commenced on May 29, 2019.”
FERC rubberstamped Phase II back in January,
and Sabal Trail has been reporting on site clearing, gravelling, etc. for months.

Meanwhile, Sabal Trail still can’t keep the gas flowing through its stranded asset pipelines.
There never was any “need” for that gas in Florida, where
Florida Power & Light (FPL)’s customers are stuck with the $4 billion construction bill.
While FPL’s parent NextEra Energy never mentions Sabal Trail any more.
NextEra brags instead about being a world leader in solar and wind energy.

As juries recently decided about easement for the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline (which Marion County also opposed),
“full compensation” is not the same as “just compensation” for road rights of way, either:

J.
It must be recognized that the issue is not simply the payment of
“full compensation” to owners of the most valuable
equine and agricultural properties in Marion County. Rather, it must
be recognized that as a result of any of these corridors, the
required right-of-way acquisitions and resulting construction of the
proposed facility will not only damage, but may destroy many of
these important operations in Marion County, and consequently,
negatively impact the economic vitality and long-range growth of
Marion County; and

Gouging pipelines or highways through farm or horse land or under rivers
destroys what they traverse.
No amount of compensation would be sufficient.

If you’re nearby, this would be good opportunity to stand up for
water, environment, and property rights.

You can help protect the Rainbow River and the Withlacoochee (south) River
this Tuesday.
WWALS member Janet Barrow recommends:

Love Marion County? Want to keep what you love about it? Show up and
support changes to the Comp Plan that will help curtail sprawl and
add protections for our rural and conservation lands and waters,
including protection from a toll road cutting through our area. Show
up. Speak in support of the language to protect the Farmland
Preservation Area and all areas to the south and west to the county
lines (SW Marion County.)

Update 2018-09-10:
Gretchen Quarterman and Janet Barrow attended the jury selection this morning,
and will report in detail this afternoon.
One difference from last time is this time jurors were asked if they knew Randy Dowdy, Wavel Robinson, or Sandra Jones. Perhaps not coincidentally, FERC required Sabal Trail to report on topsoil mixing for all three.
Jones is also the remaining eminent domain case not being tried this week.
The other three actual trials, yes, all with the same jury,
start this afternoon at 1:30 PM.

Update 2018-09-05: According to a usually reliable source
the Jones trial will be in January, so that’s three trials next week.
Also, all three trials will be heard by the same jury.
Given that each of the defendants has a different kind of property,
that sounds to me like the circus come to town.

You can come see four more eminent domain jury trials start next week in Valdosta,
after Sabal Trail lost the first one.
Jury selection will start 9AM Monday morning, September 10, 2018.
The actual trials could start that afternoon, and may run all week.
You can’t take much into the courtroom, but there’s a public sidewalk out front,
and there will probably be a TV reporter there part of the time.

When:
Jury selection 9AM Monday morning, September 10, 2018.
Trials could start that afternoon, and may run all week.

Why are you having an outage at your Hildreth Compressor Station
in Suwannee County, Florida, Sabal Trail?
And are there continuing stink leaks at your site without a compressor
at Dunnellon, Florida in Marion County?
Meanwhile, you’re still shipping nothing.
For that $3 or $4 billion, much more
electricity from solar power
could be online right now in Florida, shutting down gas power plants
instead of building them.

Noah Valenstein, formerly SRWMD, now FDEP Secretary,
has appointed Eric Draper of Audubon Florida to head Florida State Parks.
The same Eric Draper who twice endorsed Sabal Trail in writing,
and did nothing to stop Sabal Trail from drilling under the Suwannee, Santa Fe, or Withlacoochee (South) Rivers, nor under the Suwannee River State Park that he will now oversee.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida Department of Environmental
Protection Secretary Noah Valenstein today announced three key
appointments to DEP’s leadership team, as part of its continued
focus on the protection of Florida’s prized properties through the
management of Florida’s world-renowned state park system and land
acquisition and conservation. Eric Draper will join the DEP team as
the Director of Florida State Parks, effective Nov. 28, and Callie
DeHaven will serve as Interim Director of the Division of State
Lands effective Nov. 27, subject to Governor and Cabinet
confirmation. David Clark, who has previously served as Director of
State Lands and has been acting Deputy Secretary of Land and
Recreation, has officially been appointed Deputy Secretary.

Live Oak, FL, October 5, 2017
— Sabal Trail, operating without a permit, is at risk from a new
sinkhole within 60 feet of its 36-inch diameter, high-pressure,
fracked methane pipe under Suwannee River State Park (SRSP),
between the Suwannee River and the drill site in Hamilton County.
Such sinkholes are among the geological risks WWALS warned about
that have happened in the fragile karst limestone containing our
drinking water in the Floridan Aquifer. We were assured in October
2015 by Sabal Trail and the Florida Department of Environmental
Protection (FDEP) that sinkholes and frac-outs would not happen or
would be detected and fixed. They keep happening, and Sabal Trail
has done nothing about this one. Sabal Trail should not even be
continuing operations after the DC Circuit Court vacated its
permit six weeks ago.

“Well, the Suwannee
River crossing doesn’t, in fact, have any impacts to an
outstanding Florida water, because
the directional drill commences in uplands and terminates in
uplands. So there are no surface water impacts at that crossing
that would affect the outstanding Florida water.”

“Well, any work
within, or could have adverse effects on OFW, is considered.In
this case, we determine that there would be no impacts to the
OFW.”

Suwannee Riverkeeper John S.
Quarterman says:

“Email to Ms. Prather’s address now comes
back with an error message, while the rest of us are left Continue reading →